Last Letter
by Blasted Head
Summary: Arcadia was full of secrets. One if them was about Captain herself.


Time: many years later after Mayu Oyama had taken the role as Captain of _Arcadia_

* * *

 _Arcadia_ was full of mysteries. Almost every night, after most of the crewmember had fallen asleep, Captain Mayu Oyama (called 'Captain Oyama' by the crew) would take her oil lamp with her and explore the darkest corners of the ghost ship, often discovering secret rooms and passageways marked in neither the original blueprints of _Arcadia_ when he (note: since the souls of Tochiro Oyama's, Phantom F. Harlock's and Yama's were living in the computer, Captain Oyama liked to refer _Arcadia_ to 'he' rather than 'she') was still serving in Gaia Fleet, nor in the men's notes which she had discovered sometimes in the secret rooms. She would, like Harlock and Yama had done many years ago, record those places in her notes. So far, according to her estimation, she had found out more than 250 passageways and over 700 rooms, some of them used as storage room and most of them used as greenhouses. She knew whom the greenhouses belonged to, because the answer was obvious.

But she had stopped that habit three months ago, after she had found out that the Captain's chamber was as mysterious as the whole ship. She could make the wheels in the dining room turn running her fingers on the edges of the windows. After the wheels had stopped turning, a wall rose and a whole observatory on a planet which had earth's landscape and climate was before her eyes. She once found a key under a pile of yellowed paper and it opened a box containing love letters of her godfather's and master's. She did not know what had happened with that couple; those letters were more like notes of their duties and lives on _Arcadia_. There were about 50 in total.

Now, rather than discovering new things, she focused on why those things existed. She knew the conservatory was her godfather's gift to her master. She found out that most of the letters were from Harlock to Yama, written the week before the former had faded completely and merged with the central computer; the rest of the were one-sided, written by Yama to his deceased husband. The secret rooms were created to hide the things the things the Captains did not want their crew to know.

She one day discovered one of the secret was about she herself.

She was walking around and daydreaming when she kicked the loosened wooden floorboard she had not noticed before. Taking her oil lamp, she shone into the space revealed, as her sixth sense (which was more accurate than her first five senses) told her there was something in it. Some words were inscribed on the board and under it was a wooden box. She said those words in German like she had done to open those secret doors. The loosened board slid under the other together with the ones next to it. Taking the box out, she sat down on the sofa and opened it with the key sticked under the box.

Inside was an envelope sealed with wax and an ocarina she knew well. She took out the letter and started to read.

 _Dear Harlock,_

 _Don't be surprised when you receive this letter. I didn't die in the fire. I escaped. Though I didn't physically die, mentally my old self was gone. I have lived in the streets five years since five years ago. Life was hard but is better than being bossed around by my so-called 'guardian' and bullied by my so-called 'friends' in the orphanage. At least, I can make my own decisions and can do whatever I want, legal or not. I learn how to fight. I learn how to distinguish good and evil, though the definition of those two words might be the opposite to normal people. I learn how to survive._

 _This is probably the last letter of mine. I worked hard and earned enough money for cryopreservation. I may not be an outlaw like you, but I think it is the best for me to go under. The case is hidden inside an asteroid, so be careful if you sail past any._

 _Lastly, I give you my ocarina, just in case yours was destroyed in the dark matter._

 _Love,_

 _Mayu Oyama_

Captain Oyama folded the letter, put it back into the envelope and tugged it in the oil lamp, watching it burn into ashes and brightened the flame for half a minute. There was no use recalling the past, especially this part: she had surfaced again.

But still…

She held the ocarina to her lips.

The music echoed in the halls of _Arcadia_.


End file.
